Design of self-cleaning molecularly imprinted membrane with antibacterial ability for high-selectively separation of ribavirin

Powerful drivers exist for the exploitation of high natural life materials to selectively separate valuable substances or pollutants. Molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) possessing high selectivity and stability are highly desirable. Carefully designed Ribavirin (RBV)-imprinted membranes (RBVMIMs) with remarkable self-cleaning ability as well as anti-fouling and antibacterial surfaces enable selective separation of RBV from industrial effluent produced by the RBV process. (i) Self-cleaning ability was achieved by the photo-Fenton catalytic activity of RBVMIMs based on Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles. (ii) Anti-fouling and antibacterial performance were provided by a multifunction hybrid coating of polydopamine (pDA)-quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC). (iii) Satisfactory selectivity was stemmed from the uniform presence of RBV-imprinted sites which synthesized by “thiol-ene click reaction” on the membrane surface. Nfioteworthily, the employment of two functional monomers (methacrylic acid and acrylamide) synergistically promoted selective recognition of RBV-imprinted sites. The results indicated that satisfactory rebinding selectivity (αRBV/ACV = 9.87, αRBV/AZT = 9.21, αRBV/LAM = 6.63 and αRBV/G = 13.59) and permselectivity (βAZT/RBV = 11.361, βLAM/RBV = 12.518, βACV/RBV = 30.918 and βG/RBV = 18.732) with negligible permselectivity fluctuation (<10%) of RBVMIMs suggested the potential of RBVMIMs in practical applications, which was further confirmed by superior performance in semi-practical experiments. Importantly, the development and modification strategies developed in this work not only guided selective separation of valuable constituents from complex environments but also provided the reference for the development of membrane with high natural life.